Purpose: The study analyzes the occurrence of learning through experience and the development of collective skills as a result of a program aimed to build a culture of innovation. Originality/value: The study contributes to the theoretical discussion about innovation as a social process of experiential learning. From the practical point of view, it shows that the deliberate application of a method and a process in the construction of the innovation culture stimulates the learning of individual and collective abilities favorable to innovation, as well as behavioral and organizational changes. Design/methodology/approach: Participant observation was used to compile the report, and an ex post facto survey based on in-depth interviews was used to evaluate the results. The analysis was based on the phenomenological semiotics with the support of Atlas.Ti® software in the process of description, reduction and interpretation, to apprehend the awareness of the subjects’ experience. Findings: The following results were obtained: 1. the occurrence of collective learning by the construction of solutions based on the combination of ideas of subjects with different perspectives and abilities, and by the deliberate application of a method and a process; 2. building a new collective sense for innovation, as a constantly moving realization, requiring concrete behavioral changes, and a new look at reality. The study also pointed out that the theoretical approach that considers innovation as a social process of experiential learning contributes to the understanding of how the construction of the innovation culture takes place, and that this is part of the process of building innovation itself.